Oct. 30, 2013

Lloyd Carr. / Tim Galloway/Special for the Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Even 12 years later, Lloyd Carr still feels the bite of the “clock game.”

Michigan State’s 2001 win in East Lansing over U-M came when the home timekeeper allegedly held the time clock an extra second to give MSU one final play, trailing by four points.

The Spartans threw a short touchdown pass to win it 26-24 and Carr was livid.

The former U-M coach has been retired since 2007, but still burns for that game.

“I will never forget that game,” he said today on SiriusXM radio with host Jack Arute and Geno Torretta. “Somebody asked me in an interview 2-3 years ago if I could ever forget it and I can’t. Because for that team, Larry Foote and a lot of great guys on that team. That game it cost us a Big Ten championship and a New Year’s Day bowl game. That was the moment, one of those 4-5 moments that are most vivid in my memory, although I try to let it go.

“From then on the official time, they hired an extra official, a Big Ten official. What I was proud about with that team, we played a tough Minnesota game the next week. When you lose a game like that sometimes your team doesn’t respond and they maybe lose a game the next week that they should win or you think you should win. That team was special. But none of us will every forget what we thought we saw anyway.”

With another U-M/MSU game looming on Saturday in East Lansing, Carr hit on a few game-related topics:

■ On the rivalry: “For the in-state guys that you recruit on your team and of course Michigan State always has a lot of in-state guys. If you ask some of them, this game is as big or bigger than any of them.”

■ On the Paul Bunyan Trophy given to the winner: “I always said it was the ugliest trophy in college football. But he was an old guy with a beard and a lumberjack and that’s what the trophy looks like. We care very deeply about keeping him in Ann Arbor. He loves it here, he likes it a lot better than he does in East Lansing, he’s comfortable, so we’re doing everything we can to keep Paul Bunyan in Ann Arbor.

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■ On what the game means: “(A lot) when you’re both having outstanding years. This game has implications for the Big Ten Divisional championship. I think it adds to it. The intensity is always great. When you’re having an outstanding season, there’s no question it adds to it. The fan base, they know what’s at stake.”

■ On the lasting effect: “You prepare for 364 days and you get one day and you live with the results for the next 365 days. That’s why I think it’s so much fun. It’s fun to coach because as a coach you know you’re not going to have to motivate your players to get ready to play.”

■ On the intensity: “I know this. In my experience in this Michigan-Michigan State game, there’s a lot of times when you come out of there… Coach Schembechler believed this, Gary Moeller and I learned to believe it. This is not always going to be a pretty game. But it’s going to be very very intense and there will be mistakes on both sides. You just try to prevent making the mistake that’s going to kill your team. The other thing you want is a chance to win it right at the end. You always hope you can gt a lead and have it easy. But very seldom in these great rivalries, somebody’s got a chance to win it at the end. That’s another thing that makes it so special.

■ Asked the worst thing he heard in a stadium from a crowd, he recalled trying to put Scott Dreisbach in during his first game while trailing 17-0 with 12 minutes left. The crowd booed Dreisbach and him before Dreisbach led the greatest comeback in U-M history at the time.